March 25, 2011

135 comments:

"Well, let's see how that paper multilateralism is doing. The Arab League is already reversing itself, criticizing the use of force it had just authorized. Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League, is shocked -- shocked! -- to find that people are being killed by allied airstrikes. This reaction was dubbed mystifying by one commentator, apparently born yesterday and thus unaware that the Arab League has forever been a collection of cynical, warring, unreliable dictatorships of ever-shifting loyalties. A British soccer mob has more unity and moral purpose. Yet Obama deemed it a great diplomatic success that the League deigned to permit others to fight and die to save fellow Arabs for whom 19 of 21 Arab states have yet to lift a finger."

NATO reminds me of ACORN/NPR. O'Keefe should do an expose on them. As for the rest of NATO participants, it is politics and posturing as only politicians in Europe are capable of. Predictable that even with the lame retiring leadership of Obama the U.S. gets blamed anyway even as he does his best to cloak himself in reams of diplomatic paper.

What did the people who voted for Obama think they would get from a hollow, sheltered professor and community organizer? The world's diplomatic community are having a field day with Obama's fecklessness and inability to make a principled stand on anything.

Wait a minute. The Kraut condemned a result that has Kafaddi still in power but in an imposed truce with rebels. And it looks as if our air strike policy is limited to keeping this impossible situation permanently in place. So Libya will not pump oil until further notice. Hello Brazilian oil. Now Obama is sabotaging the entire world for private gain Obama calls "redistribution". After this show , world governments will probably be the GOP's largest contributors for defeating Obama in 2012.

Egan has a good point: In his deliberative fashion, Obama ultimately saved countless lives in the short term, and will allow the rebels in Libya to own their revolution in the long term, if they can push ahead — a big if, of course. In the meantime, the economic and diplomatic noose will tighten around Qaddafi and the people he pays to kill on his behalf.

As if by coincidence, Houdini's 103 year old stage assistant died this week.

Harry Houdini died on Halloween in 1926; his wife died in 1943. But Dorothy Young would live for decades, the last surviving stage assistant in those spectacles. She died on Sunday at 103 at a retirement home in Tinton Falls, N.J., her granddaughter Barbara Price said.

Too bad, Obama could have brought her on as an advisor to share some of Houdini's secrets for escaping from the trap Obama set for himself with his own campaign rhetoric and diplomacy.

Marshal said... "If you go to take Vienna, take Vienna. If you're not prepared to do so, better then to stay home and do nothing."

Dead on point.

The Army has a shorter version that since we are in the KMA phase of this debacle seems fitting:Lead, Follow, or Get the Hell out of the way!

PS: His salute really sucks. He needs to get that right elbow both up and out. His current version looks like one of those hip things, all it needs is the head dipand chin tuck.

There has got to be a Marine Sergeant Major or Gunny assigned the the Marine Guard detail, or failing that a STRAC Army Signal First Sgt assigned to WHCA that could provide private lessions. That should have been done 2 years ago. What he's doing will be tough to unteach. I blame General Jones :)

When was the last time you saw the Secretary of State/Co-President announce the start of hostilities? Isn't that the President's job?

When the President sends American boys in harm's way (a naval term, BTW, John Paul Jones: “I wish to have no Connection with any Ship that does not Sail fast for I intend to go in harm's way.”, he owes it to the Nation and the families to explain why, from behind the desk in the Oval Office.

Only "countless" if you use the same math that gives you the number of jobs "saved or created". That's bloviation, even for you.

The population of Libya isn't a mystery. The number of people in Benghazi can be reasonably estimated. Even if you go that far and allow for empirical +/-, you can still get a pretty good estimate on how many people are in there.

What do you suppose the possible downside is if, as the President's own people have suggested, the good Colonel retains power even after a couple weeks of this?

vet66 said..."What did the people who voted for Obama think they would get from a hollow, sheltered professor and community organizer?"

Well, the liberals thought he was one of them. And as for the rest, I must confess that my view is rather cynical. I think that they thought they would get absolution for years of misguided racial guilt over the legacy of slavery and segregation, and they wanted to avoid having similar guilt over voting against the first black President. What else to make of it? They'll deny it, but you have to account for the legions of smart voters who saw through Obama's schtick yet voted for him anyway. These people weren't all dummies, and so you have to think that some psychological need was being met.

Brazil's U-turn should not surprise anybody--but not in a general way (sticking it to the United States), but in a particular way; they've made it clear that they'll pursue anti-American alliances wherever they can find it.

The las Brazilian President protected Hugo Chavez and aligned himself with Turkey and Iran. He had, at least, a 'soft spot' for Ortega and Castro(es). The current President is a former rebel leader. Nobody should be surprised they act this way.

Scathing, but a little out of date, since Nato has now "agreed" to "take over" the no fly campaign. Whatever that turns out to mean.

Apparently NATO will only take over the no fly zone - easy to do since we've already destroyed all their airplanes - but they won't target anything on the ground, like Qaddafi's tanks. The "coalition" will be doing that, which I guess is us, the French and the British. At this point. We think. Really, who knows? Not Obama.

That was the mistake in Independence Day, right? They spend most of the movie faffing around with computer viruses and F/A-18s, when all along they had the 57th Wing, what, forty minutes from LA at Nellis. Do you want your flying saucer sliced or diced?

The las Brazilian President protected Hugo Chavez and aligned himself with Turkey and Iran. He had, at least, a 'soft spot' for Ortega and Castro(es). The current President is a former rebel leader. Nobody should be surprised they act this way.

No, no no...this is a very bad misreading of Brazil's position.

Now, Ruy, forgive me if you're a Brazilian (even it would be "Rui Dias", in Portuguese), but that's not why Brazilians are inching away.

I don't know how to break this to Americans, but your short-term competitors are not in far-flung Asia, but in nearby South America.

Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, with self-providing oil reserves, the only other major military power in the Americas (who build some damn good planes, at that), the eighth largest economy in the world, soon to become the 5th jumping over France/Germany, and all of this comes with a huge complex at always having been a second banana country in the New World.

Americans, if by now you haven't figured out that Brazil has you firmly in their sights, and continue to think it's due to some "left-wing" cause they're acting all snippy, they'll be dancing the samba past you in the United Nations, every day.

Appreciate those looking at the bigger picture--from an operational standpoint GEN Ham is CINC africa command and nominally in charge of US ops--but all of his forces (zero as it turns out) are coming from NATO andand the European Command--totally fucked up

It is not one or the other, but both: Brazilians have a giant chip on their shoulder when it comes to the United States, which makes them vulnerable to left-wing rhetoric and sympathetic to anti-American brutes.

The president is obsessed with pretending that we are not running the operation -- a dismaying expression of Obama's view that his country is so tainted by its various sins that it lacks the moral legitimacy to ... what? Save Third World people from massacre?

To quote Kent, O-U-C-H.

Humanitarian action, for men like Obama, means parachuting Sean Penn into Haiti, not tomahawks raining down on Africans.

The one about the "Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights" is especially priceless.

If they want Khadaffy out without conventional forces, they need a Special Forces op for about six months (not unlike that with the Northern Alliance in A-stan).

The no-fly in Iraq gave us the gassing of the Kurds, the extermination of the Marsh Arabs (who were there since Biblical times), and the incredible runaround over inspections, so the Gospel According to El Rushbo, "Symbolism Over Substance", is especially prescient. It's what the Lefties always consider most important.

Maybe The Zero just wanted to wag the dog now that inflation is rising and his unemployment numbers are fooling no one. Maybe he just got bullied, as everyone says.

But now the 26th MEU is headed there and The Zero has said there will be "absolutely" no ground involvement, which leads us to verse 2 of the Gospel According to El Rushbo, "Everything Barack Obama says has an expiration date".

When was the last time you saw the Secretary of State/Co-President announce the start of hostilities? Isn't that the President's job?

Ugh. Why is Obama President, tell me? He's a cipher who puts himself forward only at inappropriate times. Is it his frustration with the limits of the Office, a job that can't rain down candycanes and unicorns in the form of social programmes, at the jut of his jaw?

Obama sighed recently, it would be so much easier to be President of China.

The irony, no...the tragedy...is that the President of China would give anything to be President of the United States.

THE PRESTIGE. THE POWER. THE MONEY. It's unfathomable to most leaders.

If they want Khadaffy out without conventional forces, they need a Special Forces op for about six months

My brother happens to be just one of those guys. They had to report for roll call, ready to ship, last Thursday and were told to start growing their beards. The administration says, over and over, no ground troops.

Rog, I believe you once mentioned it to me once, when we were reminiscing. Shame I don't have my blog going, as I have taken some really nice snaps of SoFla, recently. Have yet to go to Opa-locka, though, sorry!

Miss Vicky and senor Ruy Diaz--grew up in miami (near corner of Flagler and 27th ave--Dad was the only spanish speaking doc in Miami and had a huge cuban clientele--intimately familiar with "old Miami" and the wonderful and vibrant Cubanos--long before 1959

Way OT (but we could spend the rest of the week talking about how fucked Obama is)

The Havana Sugar Kings were in the old international league (AAA baseball)--The now established practice of waving towels started in Gran Stadium in Havana--picked up in Miami and spread to Pittsburgh (terrible towels)

Its too bad Castro didnt get picked up by the washington senators--he was a damn good pitcher--no cuban revolution and a lot of good cuban ballplayers--alas

Nobody knows if this is the best strategy or not, but it is definitely an Obama (Professor's) war. It is the U.S. military equivalent of voting "present". Godawfy is weak enough for this to work, even if it would be a disaster in other cases. Sometimes avoiding risk is very risky and sometimes it's just safer. Nobody knows here. Either way, Obama should own it as Bush did, and not blame his subordinates. He can still blame Bush, no?

Not only did the Secretary of State announce the start of hostilities, but she did so with authority, firmness and clarity that struck me as -- well, Presidential. ("We will not waver.") Then came the actual President a few hours later, phoning it in from Brazil and wavering like hell about how we didn't want to do this in the first place and we aren't going to lead it, we aren't going to stay long, we aren't going to go beyond the mission of protecting civilians (whatever that means in this context), we aren't doing this, we aren't doing that. He was about as Presidential as a high school salutatorian.

I have a son in the Navy. This kind of callous shallow carelessness about mounting a war -- oh we'll just CALL it something else and pretend we aren't in charge and who cares anyway, let's go to Rio -- makes me burn.

TRAP team sent: 2 Harriers, 2 CV-22s for pickup (I assume with the gatling kits installed) and 2 CH53s with a rifle platoon on board.

What they really need for SAR are some Marine C130's with the gunship pallet installed and some A-10s.

USAF hates those A-10's till there is a war and they rediscover that an A-10 makes the best SAR protection bird. It can get down low and slow, circling the chute while convincing a bunch of unidentified arabs that they don't want to run toward the pilots.

facts, schmaks, reality, schmality, edutcher. With the left it's ALWAYS about the NARRATIVE, the DISCOURSE --haven't you learned that by now? "Good intentions" are ALL that matter. The tangle that is the human condition in the real world? That's for somebody else--we lesser mortals--to deal with..

Just in case some Althousians are raising an eye at all this Cubano-Brazilian talk, believe it or not, it's on point regarding Krauthammer.

I read this some time ago. Krauthammer being asked about his origins.

My mother is from Belgium, left on May the 10th 1940, which is the day the Germans invaded, made her way through France, ended up in New York working for the Free French, translating American Army manuals into French for the Free French. Met my father in Cuba, long story, and she now lives in New York and in Miami

LAMB: How did they meet in Cuba?

KRAUTHAMMER: My dad at the time was running a diamond factor, which was producing industrial diamonds for the U.S. military. My mom was visiting her parents, who didn’t get into America, didn’t have a visa, but ended up in Cuba, as a lot of Jews did. And she met him at the Hotel Internacional and the rest is journalistic history and a lot of other history.

LAMB: Did you have any brothers and sisters

KRAUTHAMMER: I have a brother, born in Brazil, lives in L.A., a physician.

"Witnesses say Syrian troops have opened fire on anti-government protesters in Daraa Friday as thousands take to the streets demanding reforms and mourning dozens of protesters who were killed during a violent, weeklong crackdown."

I thought that Obama actually had consulted with the leadership of both the House and the Senate prior to beginning bombing. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong about this.

As I understand it, he got French and British agreement on Tuesday, and told Congress on Thursday, after the orders had been issued and perhaps the B-2's were in the air, only hours from the time on target Friday early.

We used to tell Congress in advance, then only notify the French after it was too late for them to blow the operation.

Shouting thanks for the link to Reed, I agree with some of his assessment and surprised you like this guy who sounds like a Marxist when he writes;The looters came. In the past there had been an element of noblesse oblige, of concern for the nation, a sense among the upper classes that they ought to pay some slight attention to keeping the country alive while picking its bones. This changed. The country was now ruled by the tightly interlocking directorates of Wall Street, Congress, the upper reaches of the executive branch, and the big corporations, none of whose members had ever worked a night shift at Walmart

When did the GOP and its spokespersons decide that the US was friendly with Kafaddi/Libya ?

Maybe at the same time Donald Trump entered the GOP prez race, and knowing they would score points for taking on Obama/HRC aggression, with a slight anti-semitic angle (Charles Snouthammer, pals of the Prophet) .

In Libya's case, it's Call for RC, after having said we're not going after Qaddaffi. WITHIN 24 HOURS.

Everyone knows the key domino piece of the Middle East for the US is Israel. We look at the prism of the area through the lens of "maintaining Israel alive". The second key domino is oil, which is controlled by countries staunchly opposed to Israel's existence. There's another domino: the desire of the United States to stand for democracy and freedom around the world. This is also diametrically opposed to our actions in supporting certain dictators.

Most world powers like the US maintained a dizzying balancing act. But even saying that, I cannot think of a historical example where the most powerful nation hampered itself both by philosophy and policy.

A very quick and superficial understand of Brazil can gotten just by flying over San Paulo state on the approach to the airport.

The ramshackle farm is the Portuguese farmer. The efficient but dour farm belongs to the German. The efficient and aesthetic farm belongs to the Japanese farmer (Brazil has the largest japanese community in the world outside of Japan).

In the north of the country is Amazona and Rondovia. The jungle. On the Atlantic is Bahia which is beautiful and is also Africa.In the south is Rio Grande Do Sul and Minas Gerais which might as well be a tropical Bavaria. German is still spoken in Novo Hamburgo. Brazil is the size of the United States and is countries within a county Some developing at faster rates than others. Some desperately poor others relatively wealthy. Rio is both magnificent and horrifying but somehow the country just survives and slowly improves. The Brazilians say God is a Brasilleiro. Judging from the woman, they may have a point.

Just a reminder that Obama is behaving somewhat like Albright did, and that Powell would have made a better first black president :)

Albright was an early opponent of the Powell doctrine that the United States should restrict its military interventions to situations in which its vital interests are threatened, and should always insist on using overwhelming force. In his memoirs, Powell recalled that he almost had "an aneurysm" when Albright challenged him to explain "What's the point of having this superb military you're always talking about if we can't use it?"

I wish I kept a bookmark of the picture I saw of a knocked out Libyan tank cause I did a double take wondering what kind it was. Soviet/Russian tanks have an unmistakenable profile but this one I swear looked like a WW2 era Tiger tank.

Scott M, conisder the impacts of the first part:Albright was an early opponent of the Powell doctrine that the United States should restrict its military interventions to situations in which its vital interests are threatened, and should always insist on using overwhelming force.

Albright (and I think by extension Obama), willing to use military force for vague feel good goals and doing so without the overwhelming crushing force that results in lower losses and short fights.

That's where we may be headed in Libya. Not enough to win and just incfrementally upping the ante and what we have proves insufficent.

The Air Force hierarchy hates A-10s. They were forced to take them by congress. They are slow and 'air-to-mud'- a dishonorable and undignified way to fight. The Air Force higher-ups see themselves as modern day knights, fighting one-on-one with enemy fighter pilots. They love fast airplanes. Ground troops love A-10s. They are one of the most effective ground support aircraft ever made.

I can remember, even in the late 80's, when the generally accepted fate of the A-10 was to be replaced by a dedicated marque of the F-16 line for close air support (CAS) missions. Then Desert Storm happened. Our ground troops loved the Warthogs, but not nearly as much as the Iraqis hated the "Devil's Cross".

You just have to love an aircraft that contains a titanium bathtub, shoots 11-inch long bullets of depleted uranium, and can lost almost half it's airframe and still make it home.

The Frogfoot, if memory serves, was the Soviet answer, but not nearly as effective and broke more often than it flew. Like most Soviet aircraft.

Every single Cuban tells me to have it this way, cafe con leche condensada/evaporada. But I have it with whole milk. Also, I'm a Bustelo girl, despite most CAs favouring Pilon.

Cubanbob, other than it being Rondônia and Minas is not really considered South -- spot on.

(I suspect you meant Paraná)

Every Althousian should read your comment. Hey, the better your average American can understand that Brazilians are a people apart in South America, and not some copy of Venezuela, Peru or Argentina, ...or God forbid, Mexico...the better.

Egan has a good point: In his deliberative fashion, Obama ultimately saved countless lives in the short term, and will allow the rebels in Libya to own their revolution in the long term, if they can push ahead — a big if, of course.

Then what? Gaddahfi was/is a known entity. Yes he's a bad guy and his people can certainly revolt and make an effort of removing him from power. But we have no clue who steps in after that. It could be the 1)the first Jeffersonian Arab, or 2) an Islamic extremist or 3) just another guy like Gaddahfi but without the flowing robes.

In all liklihood it will be either curtain number 2 or 3 and we (the West) can pat ourselves on the back for helping facilitate that.

I'm betting that wasn't part of Obama's deliberations before sending in the F-18s

You just have to love an aircraft that contains a titanium bathtub, shoots 11-inch long bullets of depleted uranium, and can lost almost half it's airframe and still make it home.

You left off the best part: and was built around a gun (GAU-8, 30mm) that is the size of a VW, but weighs double (2 ton gun). When the gun fires, you can see the A-10 stutter in mid-air from the recoils. It is the ultimate tank killer.

It could be the 1)the first Jeffersonian Arab, or 2) an Islamic extremist or 3) just another guy like Gaddahfi but without the flowing robes. read an interview with one of the local rebels who had set up an emirate. Turns out he'd been fighting in A-stan against us and was picked up and held in Bagram for a while before being released. Just your average Al-Jefferson

I'll say it again though. I find it amazing no one questions how a UNSC resolution zipped through with Arab League backing to establish a no fly zone to prevent a 'humanitarian tragedy' yet the better part of a quarter million Darfurians have been butchered and millions more displaced and the UN has done nada, nothing, squat.

Now is the time for all American citizens to stand behind their Country and support ....... President Hillary.

I was watching the feed of the empty podium 30 minutes after she was supposed to speak and all the talking heads were wondering what the delay was for. I thought, wouldn't it be cool if she came out, frustrated, said she could no longer be a party to such confusion and lack of leadership and, as such, was resigning immediately and declaring her bid for the presidency in 2012.

Fun fantasy from a wonk's point of view, but you have got to think that Bill and Hillary have some fall-back contingency plan, like a codeword she can text to him that would set in motion her bid.

…to elaborate; Libya supplies Europe with considerable amounts of oil. The riots did not disturb the oil flow and hence the price. The CIVIL WAR has halted oil production and distribution, hence a spike in oil prices, both in Europe and worldwide. Further, Somalia, in civil war yields refugees, terrorism, and piracy for all its neighbors, but as its neighbors aren’t France and Italy, no one really cares. As Libya’s neighbors ARE Italy and France, and they don’t care for refugees, pirates, and terrorists just across the Mediterranean from them, “people” care about the unrest in Libya. Darfur, not supplying any oil nor providing any humanitarian crisis in the EU, does NOT generate the same amount of “concern.” It’s not a conspiracy, it’s just Realpolitik.

The important thing to remember you war-mongering Rightwing Death Beasts is that both the M-1 and A-10 fire Depleted URANIUM rounds, and hence are Weapons of Mass Destruction and their use a War Crime! Yhwh Above you People are so sad and lame…You salivate over these Phalli-centric, Death Devices! Is it no wonder that the whole world reviles us?!

Possibly in the circles you run in this may count as a horrific indictment and put-down, but to the rest of us it is merely a non sequitur. What difference would it make one way or the other if he is or isn’t?

Krauthammer is out of the loop. It is not war. It is the retronym KMA. The whole Obama doctrine- domestic and foreign is KMA. The whole Obama attitude is KMA.

You know when I first saw this whole Kinetic Military Action phraseology, I had to sit and think about what that really meant. Turns out that insiders in the White House don't even know what that meant either. Then I found out later that when asked about this, they directed all questioning to the Dept. of War. Yes, these human clusterfucks actually think there is a Dept. of War (a Dept. that hasn't existed since the 1940's). Concurrently, I wonder, do these insolent fools actually think that there might be a Dept. of Peace. You know, the one created from the back of Leftard bumper stickers on Priuses?

So did these morons graduate from Potential Military Action to Kinetic Military Action?

Every single Cuban tells me to have it this way, cafe con leche condensada/evaporada. But I have it with whole milk. Also, I'm a Bustelo girl, despite most CAs favouring Pilon.

Cubanbob, other than it being Rondônia and Minas is not really considered South -- spot on.

(I suspect you meant Paraná)

Every Althousian should read your comment. Hey, the better your average American can understand that Brazilians are a people apart in South America, and not some copy of Venezuela, Peru or Argentina, ...or God forbid, Mexico...the better.

3/25/11 12:52 PM

Thank you. I agree: Bustello Supreme. You are right: I had a brain misfire. I should have said Santa Catarina and to a great extent Parana and Mato Grosso. And as for the rain forest under populated areas Acre and Rondônia and in the northeast the states bordering the former Guyana's. Brazil will always be the country of tomorrow ( I can never get the tilda to work on my keyboard).

Every Latin country is unique and different from each other in various ways. But they all have some common elements in their cultures. Uruguayans are not Argentines. And theres no love lost between Chile and Argentina or Argentina and Brazil. And Costa Ricans aren't Nicaraguans. You get the gist. But one thing they all have in common along with the entire Caribbean, scratch them hard enough and the anti-Americanism always comes out. It's inbred, they can't help themselves but usually it's rather mild and the most virulent Latin anti-Americans are usually the far leftists ( and the fascist rightists).

As for Krauthammer's dad working in 1940 Havana in the diamond business,a late uncle of mine learned to cut diamonds from the Dutch and Belgian Jewish émigrés in Havana 1940. Made a ton of money and bought one of the last classic yellow Packard convertibles off the line before the plant turned to war production. After the war with all the money he made cutting diamonds he went to every US Army surplus action and bought every staff car, jeep and truck he could lay his hands on and shipped to Cuba. Made a fortune. Invested in real estate. Not a good idea when the communist came.He always said the more Franklins and grants he had the better his ingles.

In some ways think of Brazil like China. Although a political whole the provinces/states are really are to a large degree countries within countries. North America (Qubec being the exception) is far more homegenized than any Central or South American country, especially the larger countries.

While I generally loved Krauthammer's snark - he is still on the side of the Neocon Empire. Which holds America is the one indispensible nation obligated to undertake a series of wars and "actions" to Save Humanity.

20 possible conflicts, each according the the Neocons a "potential Munich" unless we commit wealth and troops.

Obama is supremely modest about his country. America should be merely "one of the partners among many," he said Monday. No primus inter pares for him. Even the Clinton administration spoke of America as the indispensable nation. And it remains so. Yet at a time when the world is hungry for America to lead -- no one has anything near our capabilities, experience and resources -- America is led by a man determined that it should not.

I happen to agree with the notion that America should not have ever trapped itself in the "indispensible nation" garbage. That all other nations can just sit back because a Good President will eventually "Lead!" and only squander US lives and treasure in the process.

An argument for getting into a war not in our vital interests with no exit strategy should not be based on Krautie's belief that we have to because no one else has our capacities, experience in endless wars, and resources.

Resources? All those piles of cash in America lying around for elective wars?

Capacities? As in the US having the capacity to send a 340 million dollar warplane up at 2 million a mission while our bridges and cities crumple? While other nations on the free ride of US unilateralism get to sock their money into infrastructure and extra welfare goodies?